QUANTICO, Va. When Marine Sgt. Jonathan Charles' unit arrived in Afghanistan, the American troops faced an entrenched enemy that picked a fight with the Marines almost every time they stepped off base.

President Obama said Tuesday that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, his top commander in the Afghanistan war, "showed poor judgment" in his contribution to a magazine article in which McChrystal and his staff made negative comments about the president and his national security team including a reference to Vice President Biden as "Bite Me" in a magazine article.

On the eight-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, Americans say the U.S.-led military campaign is making progress in weakening the Taliban and terrorist staging grounds, but they are skeptical it is succeeding in building a stable democracy.